The post-COVID months for the construction industry have been challenging due to the lack of materials and dwindling labor force. Surprisingly enough, the construction industry has slowly bounced back from the pandemic and employment is nearing pre-pandemic levels with commercial spending increasing daily.

Residential construction spending has surprisingly maintained above pre-pandemic numbers while, at the same time, both residential and commercial volume have taken a decline since the start of 2021.

An article by forconstructionpros.com quotes business professional, Henry D'Esposito in saying,

“At some point over the next 12 months, this trend is expected to stabilize and reverse itself, and nonresidential construction will return to month-over-month growth.”

There are, however, a few obstacles lingering in the way of improvement for the construction industry to flourish in 2022. The biggest being the extended lead-times and raising prices on material. These things play a tremendous part in the decrease and affordability in construction pricing for both the commercial and residential industries.

Along with the material back-logs and haunting prices, COVID-19's delta variant has slowed growth and placed more strenuous safety rules on workers, which causes more time to complete the project.

Overall, the construction industry has a ways to go before it meets pre-pandemic numbers, but the levels are increasing and according to JLL's H2 2021 Construction Outlook, employment is getting closer and closer to the pre-pandemic labor counts. If we can get a hold on production of materials and decrease the delays on lead times, the industry will be back in business for 2022. Until then, we have to put up with the high costs and extended delays.